The surnames are first
Limestone was brought into the area in canal barges and then burned in lime kilns at the canal side. This produced powdered lime which was used to make cement, and for spreading on the fields to improve them. The lime burners mentioned here appear to have made their living in this way.
Some of the trades in the 1858 directory are familiar to us (butchers, bakers and carpenters) but others are perhaps not so familiar. The maltster treated barley with malt in his malthouse. The finished product was then used to brew beer.
Edward Davies of Berriew Road sold products useful to local farmers. Guano was a fertiliser made from rotted bird droppings. It was collected from rocky islands and shores where sea birds nested in thousands, and brought into the area in sacks on canal barges. Mr Davies storerooms must have smelled wonderful !
group
of Victorian skilled men. The wheelwrights made the wooden wheels for the thousands of horse-drawn carts, carriages and omnibuses which kept Britain going.
